Generally we know the precipitation increases as altitude increases and along the orography of the mountains also. How do you calculate this gradient in precipitation?
Maybe this will help....generally I think it would be P(b) - P(a)/distance. [P=precipitation], then you would get something like mm/km.
There are more accurate approaches by type of atmospheric circulation :
http://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00419170/
If you have several raingauges in your study area, and if the area is large enough, you could try "geographically weighted regression" which calculates a regression for a local neighbourhood and gives spatially distributed regression coefficients. However, this only works or makes sense on the regional scale.
No matter on what spatial scale you're working, you may wish to take into account the temporal variability. For example, rainfall gradients may vary between seasons or synoptic setting. A first look at long-term average annual rainfall is helpful anyway.
Here are some references:
Brunsdon, C., McClatchey, J., and Unwin, D.: Spatial variations in the average rainfall-altitude relationship in Great Britain: an approach using geographically weighted regression, Int. J. Climatol., 21, 455–466, doi:10.1002/joc.614, 2001.
Brown, S., Versace, V. L., Laurenson, L., Ierodiaconou, D., Fawcett, J., and Salzman, S.: Assessment of Spatiotemporal Varying Relationships Between Rainfall, Land Cover and Surface Water Area Using Geographically Weighted Regression, Environ Model Assess, 17, 241–254, doi:10.1007/s10666-011-9289-8, 2012.
Multiple linear regression in SPSS and after that ArcGis raster calculator:
Dependent: Precipitation
Independent: Altitude, longitude latitude
Please be concentrated towards remote sensing data for precipitation measurement in a mountain belt latitudinal and longitudinal to reach the conclusion.
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